DOI article:
Branting, Agnes; Adams-Ray, Edward [Transl.]: Modern tapestry-work in Sweden
DOI article:Frantz, Henri: The Rouart collection, 1, The Corots
DOI Page / Citation link: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.43452#0124
The Rouart Collection.—The Corots
The rouart collec¬
tion.—i. THE COROTS.
BY HENRI FRANTZ.
PANELS OF A SCREEN. DESIGNED AND WOVEN BY
FRYKHOLM
lie many degrees of variation, of course, but in
every case great weight is laid on colours and their
values. In all textile art colour is of essential im-
portance, for no material can give us such depths
of colour as those employed here. If, as I just
said, modern Swedish tapestry art cannot show any
uniformity as regards decorative style, I am inclined
to say that the same art, like Swedish textile art in
general, is distinguished by a fully uniform sense
of colour which is characteristically Swedish.
Just as the songs of a country speak to us of its
inhabitants, so do colours too, and both stand in
close connection with the character of the scenery
amid which the people live. In the vast forest-
tracts of Northern Sweden the people are far more
serious than those living farther southward, where
the woodland lightens and the plains begin, and
these variations in temperament find expression in
song and colour. Whether, then, the colours in
Swedish tapestries are deep, strong, and serious, or
playful, lightsome, and cheerful, they always express
something so characteristically Swedish that we
recognise them wherever we .may meet them.
The close of the year 1912 witnessed
in Paris the dispersion by public auction
of one of the most famous French art
collections of the nineteenth century
— I refer to that of M. Henri Rouart;
and this sale takes its place as one of
the great events, so far as the art world
is concerned, of our times, because the
man who formed this great collection was
one of those amateurs, rather rare be it
said, like M. Jean Dollfus, M. Duthuit,
and M. Tomy-Thiery, who devote their
whole existence to the formation of
collections which represent their own
deepest predilections, and in acquiring
pictures which give them pleasure, while
completely disdaining any speculative
value in the works they buy. Nowadays
many of the ever-increasing band of ait
collectors appear to make their acquisi-
tions either because by buying certain
pictures (acting upon advice they have
received) they will be acknowledged by
the public at large as connoisseurs, or
else because they hope that the flight of
a few years will enable them to realise the
fruits of a pro fitable financial deal. M. Henri Rouart,
on the contrary, devoted all his intelligence and all
his activity to buying paintings or drawings which
had for him a personal appeal and which he really
loved to possess. His collection was the lifework of
a man of taste and artistic perception. So therefore
at the present moment, when this vast collection
has just been dispersed, it will be by no means
unprofitable if we devote to it a final souvenir and
pass in review certain of the most important works
which composed it.
The name of Ilcnri Rouart will ever remain
intimately associated with those of certain of the
great masters of the nineteenth century. Without
recapitulating in detail the career of this collector,
it is worth while to bear in mind that from the last
years of the Empire, about 1868 to 1870, Rouart
had already begun to appreciate the work of such
artists as Corot, Manet, Daumier, Renoir, Millet,
Monet, and Degas, who at that time were held in
very little esteem by the generality of people. He
was in particular very closely acquainted with
Millet, Corot, Cals, and Degas; and the last
111
The rouart collec¬
tion.—i. THE COROTS.
BY HENRI FRANTZ.
PANELS OF A SCREEN. DESIGNED AND WOVEN BY
FRYKHOLM
lie many degrees of variation, of course, but in
every case great weight is laid on colours and their
values. In all textile art colour is of essential im-
portance, for no material can give us such depths
of colour as those employed here. If, as I just
said, modern Swedish tapestry art cannot show any
uniformity as regards decorative style, I am inclined
to say that the same art, like Swedish textile art in
general, is distinguished by a fully uniform sense
of colour which is characteristically Swedish.
Just as the songs of a country speak to us of its
inhabitants, so do colours too, and both stand in
close connection with the character of the scenery
amid which the people live. In the vast forest-
tracts of Northern Sweden the people are far more
serious than those living farther southward, where
the woodland lightens and the plains begin, and
these variations in temperament find expression in
song and colour. Whether, then, the colours in
Swedish tapestries are deep, strong, and serious, or
playful, lightsome, and cheerful, they always express
something so characteristically Swedish that we
recognise them wherever we .may meet them.
The close of the year 1912 witnessed
in Paris the dispersion by public auction
of one of the most famous French art
collections of the nineteenth century
— I refer to that of M. Henri Rouart;
and this sale takes its place as one of
the great events, so far as the art world
is concerned, of our times, because the
man who formed this great collection was
one of those amateurs, rather rare be it
said, like M. Jean Dollfus, M. Duthuit,
and M. Tomy-Thiery, who devote their
whole existence to the formation of
collections which represent their own
deepest predilections, and in acquiring
pictures which give them pleasure, while
completely disdaining any speculative
value in the works they buy. Nowadays
many of the ever-increasing band of ait
collectors appear to make their acquisi-
tions either because by buying certain
pictures (acting upon advice they have
received) they will be acknowledged by
the public at large as connoisseurs, or
else because they hope that the flight of
a few years will enable them to realise the
fruits of a pro fitable financial deal. M. Henri Rouart,
on the contrary, devoted all his intelligence and all
his activity to buying paintings or drawings which
had for him a personal appeal and which he really
loved to possess. His collection was the lifework of
a man of taste and artistic perception. So therefore
at the present moment, when this vast collection
has just been dispersed, it will be by no means
unprofitable if we devote to it a final souvenir and
pass in review certain of the most important works
which composed it.
The name of Ilcnri Rouart will ever remain
intimately associated with those of certain of the
great masters of the nineteenth century. Without
recapitulating in detail the career of this collector,
it is worth while to bear in mind that from the last
years of the Empire, about 1868 to 1870, Rouart
had already begun to appreciate the work of such
artists as Corot, Manet, Daumier, Renoir, Millet,
Monet, and Degas, who at that time were held in
very little esteem by the generality of people. He
was in particular very closely acquainted with
Millet, Corot, Cals, and Degas; and the last
111